Transcript In the Beginning Greek Myhology

In the Beginning…
Greek Mythology
What is Mythology?
The human race has always asked questions.
 Why are we here?
 Why did this happen?
 How did we get here?
 How/when will it all end?
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These questions are the seeds in which myths were
produced.
Myths are stories that were/are told to explain creation,
hatred, death, sickness, discord and almost anything else
you can think of.
Most myths revolve around divine beings interacting with
humans and therefore myths have played a role in
establishing religion, values, and customs in the various
cultures of the world.
Purpose of Myths
►A
myth answers the “why” questions
► Myths
define/identify the values and
characteristics of a culture
► Myths
were constructed through oral
tradition
► Myths provide entertainment
Myth Influences on Society
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Just look around and you’ll see vast evidences of myth
influence in our culture. Here are a few examples…
 How many of you are wearing Nike’s today?
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Nike, in Greek mythology, was the goddess of victory.
 Have any of you ever heard of the Ford Mercury automobile?
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Mercury, in Roman mythology, was the god of commerce and
messenger of the gods
 Ever wondered where the phrase raining cats and dogs came
from?
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In a Teutonic myth, the wind was a huge dog, chief attendant
to Odin, the god of wisdom, war, and the cosmos. When it
rained hard, Odin's dog was chasing a cat, in the form of rain.
So when it poured, Odin dropped "cats and dogs" from the
sky.
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Even now you can find mythological influences in literature,
comic books, school mascots, cartoons, transportation,
television and movies.
► Myth
– a story of forgotten or vague origin,
basically religious or supernatural in nature,
which seeks to explain or rationalize the
universe and all that is in it
► All myths are, at some stage, actually believed
to be true by the societies that used or
originated the myth
► The chronological order of myths goes from
focusing on the gods to the gods interacting
with men to heroic men
► The
stories were created around 1200 BC
but were not written down until about 800
BC. Until then they were passed down by
word of mouth.
► The stories mainly survived three ways:
1. Homer 2. Hesiod 3. The Homeric Hymns
How did Greek Myths Begin?
► Shepherds
and herdsmen didn’t worship
idols but rather cherished light and beauty.
► Decided to worship this light and beauty
and created stories about its origin
According to the shepherds…
► Originally
there was a shapeless
nothingness called Chaos. From Chaos
came two children – Night and Death.
► From night and death was born Love who
then created Light and Day. After Light
and Day were born, Mother Earth and
Father Heaven appeared – there is no real
story to explain how.
► Gaea,
known to us as Mother Earth, fell in
love with Uranus, known as Father
Heaven.
► He became her lover and her husband
► Soon after Gaea and Uranus have many
children.
► The first children are known as the Titans.
Titans
Uranus and Gaea
Cronus
and Rhea
Coeus and Phoebe
Oceanus and Tetyus
Titans
► Glorious
gods and goddesses
► Supreme rulers
► Enormous in size with incredible strength
► Mountains were created to give them each a
throne
► Both Uranus and Gaea loved these children
Other Children
►3
Cyclopes - each born with only one eye
in the center of his forehead; gigantic with
devastating power and strength
► 3 Monsters with 50 heads and 100 hands
– these were hated by Father Heaven and
he imprisoned them
Mother Earth Strikes Back
► She
found out what Father Heaven had
done to her sons and asked for help.
► The only one brave enough was the Titan
Cronus. He fatally wounded his father, and
from his blood came the monsters called
Giants.
► After this, Cronus took charge and ruled
with his wife/sister Rhea.
Cronus and Rhea
► Had
many children
► Cronus heard prophesy that one of his
children would dethrone him, so after
every birth, he would eat his child.
► Rhea, getting tired of losing children,
tricked him when their sixth child was
born, and Zeus lived.
► Zeus
challenged Cronus, and a war broke
out. Before that Zeus was able to wound
Cronus and release his brothers and
sisters from inside of him. They fought
with Zeus, along with Prometheus, a son
of another Titan, and the monsters that
Father Heaven had locked away. He was
able to defeat Cronus and the other
Titans. After battles with the remaining
monsters, Zeus became supreme ruler.
► Atlas
– a Titan was forced to bear the
world on his shoulders as a punishment
from Zeus because he fought against Zeus
in the war with the Titans
Making Men
► Once
Zeus had gotten rid of all the
monsters, Earth was ready for mankind.
► Another version is that the gods kept
making different races of men until they
found one that worked.
► Zeus
gave the challenge of filling Earth to
Prometheus, who was very wise, and his
brother, who was very impulsive
► Prometheus’s brother gave all the best
gifts to the animals before man was made.
Prometheus helped man out by standing
him upright and giving him fire. **
► Zeus became angry that Prometheus was
helping man out so much that as revenge
he created the first woman – Pandora.
Pandora’s Box
► Zeus
created a sweet
and beautiful creature
to bring evil to men.
She was curious, like
all women are.
► All the gods gave her
gifts, mostly bad
ones, to be put into a
box. She was told
never to open the
box.
► Her
curiosity got the
better of her, and she
opened the box and
let out all manner of
evils, like Sorrow and
Mischief, into the
world of humans.
► The only good in the
box was Hope, which
went out into the
world as well. That is
what allows humans
to go on throughout
the evil.
What happened to Prometheus?
► Prometheus
loved the humans he had
made. He hated to see Zeus mistreat them.
► To help them succeed and thrive, he gave
humans fire despite Zeus commanding him
not to.
► As punishment, Zeus had Prometheus
chained to the top of a mountain where a
bird would eat his liver out every day.
Prometheus accepted this fate because he
knew that one day a great hero would set
him free.
Hercules